First Local Board of Ed Meeting #
I attended my first board of ed meeting and it was rather interesting. Like many communities in New Jersey, mine is dealing with another year of a budget deficit. The shortgage is making me want to become more informed as a citizen because I have a young daughter that will be going into the school systems in 2026. And what better time to get involved then during a crisis?!
Budget Overview #
Our budget is roughly $195M and there’s a shortage of $5m. That’s a roughly 3% deficit, which all things considered is not the worst.
There’s two main proposals on the table to plug the gap
- Close one of the smallest elementary schools
- Stop funding middle school sports
Neither of which options are drawing much support in online forums or the public comments. To my surprise though, the cutting of sports has the most opposition that I heard in the public comments. There was at least one current student and two current teachers who came out to voice their concerns for cutting of the sports program. Similarly, a few alumni students and coaches came out as well.
Some of the common themes of the night were
- Sports provides an outlet for students that brings joy
- Being on a team builds friendships and bonds that last a lifetime
- For some students, it motivates them to perform well enough to participate
- Kids have something to do between 3-5 pm
Thoughts #
The last point came up enough that it really made me think about this.
If we’re saying cutting the sports programs for 7th and 8th grade will provide $5M, what does that come out to per student?
There was roughly 2000 students in the middle school last year.
So simple math would show if you average it out to all students, we’re talking $2500 per year.
If you only included the athletes, which I think is closer to 300 students, then we’re talking almost $17000 per student.
That’s unthinkable to me that we’re spending that much money for something that is not essential to a childs education.
It really made me think if I would readily pay this out of pocket.